KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 14): The chief executive officer of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC), Belvinder Kaur Sron, on Saturday called on the European Union to delay the implementation of its Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), in order to address flaws of the policy.

Belvinder in a media statement said that the implementation date of Dec 30, 2024 is unworkable, as it is discriminatory against small farmers in the developing world.

“The European Commission should now do the right thing, and listen to the ever-growing calls for a delay to the EUDR.

“A delay is now the only way to ensure small farmers are supported, to provide stability for businesses, EU member states, and governments around the world, and to avoid a chaotic implementation of the EUDR in January 2025,” said Belvinder.

She added that the EUDR is a non-tariff barrier that will add significant administrative costs and burdens, and risks excluding smallholders from the EU supply chain altogether.

“The EU also has not provided clear guidelines for compliance, even though the implementation deadline is in less than four months,” she said.

She also urged the EU to take several steps to address flaws of the EUDR — providing a genuine and wide-ranging exemption for smallholders to prevent their exclusion from supply chains; publishing specific and credible criteria, so that proven sustainable commodities such as Malaysian palm oil can be identified as ‘low risk'; and accepting the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) standard as a compliance tool for the EUDR to ease market access for proven zero-deforestation palm oil.

The EUDR is a non-tariff barrier targeting commodities, including palm oil, which requires all imports to the EU to provide huge quantities of data, including on geolocation, ‘polygon’ mapping of plantations, due diligence statements and other administrative requirements, from Dec 30, 2024.

According to the MPOC, these requirements could force small farmers of palm oil in Malaysia out of supply chains because they do not have the technical capacity to provide all of the data demanded by the EUDR.

“Glenauk Economics estimates the cost of the EUDR for the palm oil sector to be US$650 million (RM2.8 billion) annually, with US$260 million in costs burdening small farmers specifically,” the MPOC pointed out.

The council added that Malaysia’s MSPO standard already guarantees legality and zero-deforestation commitments, while also supporting small farmers.

Malaysia has consistently urged the EU and other stakeholders to recognise that the EUDR discriminates against the developing world, that the implementation date is unworkable, and that a delay is needed.

Other governments, industries and experts have supported this position, both inside the EU and in other countries around the world, said the MPOC.

On Sept 12, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that he had asked the EU to suspend the EUDR to allow objections raised — over the burden on the print sector — to be addressed. He said that he shares the concerns of publishers about the regulation and its potential impact on print products.